Viva Las Vegas

Whew...after leaving my full-time job the end of June, I thought my summer would slow down a bit!  Not the case at all!  I have been a world-traveler the last couple of weeks!  I spent 5 days in Pennsylvania, 2 days in Chicago, and most recently, 4 days in Las Vegas!

One of my greatest friends, Courtney, who I've known for 20 years (crazy huh?), celebrated her bachelorette party in Las Vegas this past weekend.  While I realized with a three hour time difference, missing my baby, and being 5 years older than the last time I visited Vegas, I simply could not hang like I was hoping to!  I only lost 2 dollars gambling, got to experience some of the best clubs in Vegas, oh and I saw Carrot Top's stand-up!  All and all I had a blast with some of my best and oldest friends - my SMARGEs!  Just seeing these beautiful women and spending quality time and having some much needed girl-talk with them was well worth the lack of sleep!  Look at these beauties!

While I did have a lot of fun with my girls, I missed Roman like crazy!  We got to skype and Justin sent me at least 3 pictures each day to tie me over until I was home!  Looks like he had a blast while Mommy was gone, doesn't it?

Let's try this again!

So it has been a busy couple of months, and quite frankly, I forgot about my little blog!  To bring you all up to speed, here is the what has happened with the Castellis since I last wrote...

I made the tough decision to leave my job at WRTV-6 (which I loved) to be at home with Roman (whom I love sooo much more)!  I didn't want to fully leave the work-force all together, but I wanted to do something part-time.  I have found a wonderful part-time Account Rep position with Godiva Chocolatier!  Let's just hope I don't gain 100lbs from eating the amazing chocolate!  I love my time with Roman, and he is changing so much daily that I wanted to be there to see all of his changes!  

Speaking of Roman, he is now WALKING!!!  He took his first steps the day before his 11 month birthday!  Now he's walking all over the place!  It's so cute to watch him do his 'mummy-walk' as I call it! He still has his arms out while he walks, but it is the cutest thing to see this little 29" baby walking around!

Not only is Roman walking, but has really taken an interest in balls the last couple of months (which Justin is happy about)!  He will always choose a ball over any other toy, and it's so funny to watch him try to shoot at his hoop like his Daddy!  

Finally, this summer we decided to do a little landscaping in the backyard.  I have always been happy with our front yard and how the landscaping looks.

But our backyard around our patio was pretty bare!

So Justin and his friend Joe got to work!

We planted 2 trees, hostas, and arborvitae around the back patio, and did some shrubs on the side of the house!  I think it turned out pretty good!  We'll add more and more each year, but this is a good start!

And then finally, our little guy is going to be ONE is just 20 days!  I can't believe a whole year has gone by!  This time last year, my feet/ankles looked like this -

Ha!  Isn't this scary?

And now I'm in the midst of making birthday buntings, Roman's 1-year shirt, and ordering cotton candy for Roman's birthday carnival!  I'm sure I'll do an entire post with pictures of his birthday!  :)

So that has been our summer so far!  We still have a couple of months left to enjoy our hot weather - and then I think I'll be ready for the wonderful fall - football, pumpkins, sweatshirts!  I'll keep you posted on it all (if I can remember)!

Updates...

I have really dropped the ball on this blog!  It's been over a month since I last posted, and a lot has happened in the last month!  I'll just share a few of my favorites, starting with our trip to AZ.

We got to visit with our great friends, Trish and Zac.  I've known Trish since the 6th grade, and we pretty much grew up together.  I love that I still have those girlfriends who knew me as an awkward middle schooler, consoled me through all of my heart breaks, celebrated our weddings together, and now are able to be a part of Roman's life!  We had a relaxing time in Phoenix visiting and reminiscing, and I attended a Holy Yoga class Trish teaches.  We then headed to Sedona where we visited the Chapel on the Hill and all of its beautiful scenery.  We snapped a few pics when up at the Chapel.

Another exciting event in the last few weeks is Roman's baptism.  He was baptized at our church, Holy Spirit at Geist, and all of our family was there.  Justin's sister, Kristin, is Roman's Godmother, and my brother Tony is his Godfather.  It was finally a semi-warm day, so I didn't feel so bad putting Roman into Nolan's baptism outfit that had little shorts!  Here are a few pictures from the day.

With Father and Roman's Godparents - Kristin and Tony

A family picture taken by my brother-in-law, Matt.

 And finally, our little guy has turned 7 months!  It's amazing how fast time has flown by!  Roman is so active at 7 months, reaching for EVERYTHING, putting everything in his mouth, rolling around, clapping, laughing, and just being cute!  Below are a few of his 7 month pics that I take with his bear.  It's getting harder and harder for him to sit still and let me get one good picture!

I love this little rascal!  See you soon!

Trip to Chicago

Justin was in Houston and Chicago all of last week, and Roman and I decided to go stay with Justin in Chicago for his birthday this weekend! But first, Roman and I detoured to Manteno, IL to visit with my Papa and Grandma on Thursday night.  I had to laugh as I brought in all of our luggage - Roman's pack-n-play, his bumbo seat, his diaper bag, a bag of his food and bottles, a bag of my toiletries, a suitcase of our clothes, my computer bag, and a bag with Justin's birthday presents in it!  You'd think we were moving in with my grandparents!  Roman and I had such a good time...we I had my Grandma's homemade meatloaf Thursday night, then we sat around and visited for a couple of hours.  Friday morning we got up and spent time in my grandparents' basement.  I spent 22 Christmas's in that basement, and going back down there brought back some fun memories...performances on Christmas, stealing peanut M&M's from the gumball machine, seeing a video of Santa climbing out of the fireplace, and sitting at their bar on Christmas and feeling so grown-up as a little kid.  It really was fun trip down memory lane -and I'm so glad we got to spend that time with them!  I won't wait another 7 years to go back to their house!

Friday afternoon Roman and I headed to Berwyn to visit with my Aunt Jayne!  Roman was in the best mood, just laughing away as Aunt Jayne sang "Ol' McDonald" to him!  He also got his first taste of a popsicle - and he couldn't get enough!   Roman and I loved the short-time we spent with my "Buddy" (what Aunt Jayne and I started calling each other when I was 4 and I lived in Florida), but then it was time to head to Chi-town to surprise Justin with our birthday present!

We got to the hotel and gave Justin his gift...an I-pad.  He had been talking about getting one for about 6 months, but I knew he didn't think I'd get him one, so he was so happy and surprised!  We then went to dinner and called it a night!

Saturday, Roman and I headed to Lincoln Park to see Jen (my college roomy and friend since 4th grade). Two other college roomies,  Sarah and her two kids and Emilie and Duke and their daughter Audrey all met up for lunch and to catch up!  It was great to see my old roomies and their kids (and pup Murphy)!   Roman and I took a walk over to Nordstrom  to look around, and then just hung out with Justin that evening!  All and all it was a relaxing weekend in Chicago, and I got a couple of pictures of Roman just being sweet and cute!  I'm mad at myself for not getting pics of Roman with Papa & Grandma, Aunt Jayne, and the IU kiddos, so I just took some solo ones of Mr. Roman!

Loving the soft, plush bed!

He loved standing by himself using the
ottoman that was just his size!

Just playing the in the sunlight shining in our room!

Trip Down Memory Lane...

In the midst of our ice storm winter wonderland, I was doing a little house cleaning this evening.  For whatever reason, our bedroom gets pretty bad.  We pretty much keep the downstairs clean and presentable, but our bedroom always get neglected.  With the laundry room upstairs - my bed becomes the folding table, the dresser becomes a quick place to put all of my jewelry when I take it off at night, and the nightstand will have 3-4 empty bottles on any given day (currently 3 bottles, baby lotion, about 12 books I've never read, a thermometer, blah blah blah, you get the picture).

When I was trying to clear away some of the clutter tonight, I came across a cd case that said, "PICTURES" on it.  At first I thought it was our engagement pictures - but I wanted to pop the cd in to see exactly what was on it.  I was so excited when I saw pictures from when Justin and I first started dating almost 8 years ago!  Just for giggles, I thought I'd post a couple.  We look so young!  Brings back fun memories of college and all of the fun we had together!

Excuse me...notice my nose ring and Justin's earrings - oh,
and the one shoulder shirt was a staple in 2003!

Our Halloween costume for the annual 518 Halloween Party!
Look at my cute little Gangsta' hubs!

Great backdrop, huh?  What's up with my earrings - and my hair?
This pic is a hot mess!